Pads and natural and synthetic sponges have been used for cleaning purposes, such as cleansing the human body, removing dirt and dead skin, and moisturizing the cleansed skin. They have also been used to clean inanimate bodies/objects and the like. Typically, a user applies a cleansing compound to the pad or the surface to be cleaned, and then the pad is rubbed over the surface for cleaning action. The residual cleansing compound is then rinsed off the body or the surface.
A variation in the above process has been to create a cleansing pad by placing a cleaning agent such as bar of soap inside a sponge for washing the body in the shower or bath. Such a sponge includes a container forming an envelope/reservoir for the soap, and openings through to the container interior allowing water access to the soap and the facile exiting of lather for washing purposes. However, because the soap is in a reservoir, the lathering action may be limited because the lather must travel from within the reservoir through the sponge to the surface of the sponge for cleansing the body.
Other conventional cleansing pads provide metal meshes that are loaded up with soap paste and are used to clean metal and other surfaces, but not soft surfaces. Yet other conventional cleansing pads are aimed primarily at hard surface cleaning (kitchen/bathroom usage). In one case (U.S. Pat. No. 5,507,968) detergent is first blended with a polymeric material, such as polyacrylamide polymers, to become a controlled release detergent composition and this mixture is applied to a porous pad. However, a disadvantage in this case is the need for adding a polymer to the detergent.
In another case (U.S. Pat. No. 6,299,520) an antimicrobial substance is mixed into a liquid film forming binder, cured, and the combination is applied to various pads. In addition to antimicrobials, various abrasives can also be incorporated this way into the binder. However, a disadvantage in this case is the need for a liquid film forming binder for the antimicrobial agent.
Another case (U.S. Pat. No. 5,955,417) is directed to scouring pads wherein cleansing agents are injected into pads (0.8 to maximum 2.0 parts of dry cleanser to 1 part of pad) and the resulting product is force dried using a conventional two-stage convection drier to remove water. However, a shortcoming in this case is that the resulting product must be force dried to remove water. Another shortcoming in this case is that a maximum amount of 2 parts of dry cleanser to 1 part of pad is used which severely limits the number of usages.
There is, therefore, a need for a long lasting cleansing pad retaining sufficient amounts of cleansing agent, that allows multiple uses without the need for additional cleansing agents and does not require a multi-step drying process and does not require polymers for a cleansing agent to adhere to the pad.